[Lemmings 2] Holiday Tribe 2020

[kieranmillar]

After a tough 2020, the Lemmings have treated themselves to travelling to a far away tropical island to try and cheer themselves up. And hopefully, their adventures will cheer you up too.

Holiday Tribe 2020 is a 10 level Lemmings 2 pack, replacing all 10 levels of the Beach Tribe. While levels are more difficult than the official levels, that's not a terribly hard barrier to overcome, and the level pack as a whole is much easier than my other Lemmings 2 pack, Quest From Kieran 2.

As always with Lemmings 2, you are expected to save everyone where possible. In this pack you can save everybody, with the aim being to get the full 60 lemmings to the end. Some levels are extremely easy if you are OK with letting at least one lemming die. Saving them all is the real puzzle.



After not touching Lemmings for a long time, I felt in the mood for a quick one-off. Lemmings 2 Tribes are nice because they are only 10 levels long, and the level editing is pretty fast due to the restrictive grid massively limiting your options. This entire tribe was built in the span of a single weekend.

How to Install
Back up your current Lemmings 2 LEVELS folder, then extract the contents of the zip into there, overwriting the existing files.

How to run Lemmings 2 in DOSBox

[Simon]

Very nice! The 10 levels will fit into one or two evenings even in the busy December work schedule. The clams are already looking forward.

I'd be up to speed-solve them on livestream. geoo or anybody else: Who would be up for it?

In case there are no takers, I'll solve them peacefully at home and post written/video feedback in a couple weeks after the solving. geoo will play them on stream with me.

-- Simon

[geoo]

Haven't played any Lemmings levels in a while, but this is always a treat.

I'd be down for some speed-solving on stream, especially if the levels are not super tough. Some evening next weekend maybe?

[Simon]

geoo is happy with either of these two dates:

Saturday, December 5, 17:00 UTC
Sunday, December 6, 17:00 UTC

Kieran, which of these fits you better?

-- Simon

[kieranmillar]

Either works for me, lets go with Saturday.

[Simon]

Stream is over. Thanks to geoo for playing and to Kieran for level design and live commentary!

Recordings will remain for 14 days at:

My stream: https://twitch.tv/simonnaar/
geoo's stream: https://twitch.tv/geoouwuw/

-- Simon

[kieranmillar]

Thanks to Simon and geoo for their stream, found lots of backroutes.

I've attached v2 to the opening post to fix all of the backroutes, and I also replaced one of the levels! The new level is sadly a bit awkward with its execution requirements, but that's Lemmings 2 for you.

v2 changelog:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

• Level 1: This Trap Sucks - Skill and terrain changes to fix backroutes.
• Level 2: 2fort - Replaced with new level, Cliff Notes, and moved to position 4.
• Level 2 (was 3): Bunker Buddy - Change backroute-enabling decoration.
• Level 3 (was 4): Pier Pressure - Skill and terrain changes to fix backroutes. Changed starting camera position to show all entrances and exits at start.
• Level 6: Carpet Bombing - 5 extra Magic Carpets added. Intended solution unchanged.
• Level 7: Buried in Sand - Terrain tweaks to remove distractions. Intended solution unchanged.
• Level 8: Unstable Foundations - Significant terrain and skill changes to fix backroutes.
• Level 9: The Clam Army - Terrain changes and significant skill changes. Most importantly, the Clam King has recruited many more clams to his army.
• Level 10: Lair of the Clam King - The Clam King has moved closer to keep a more watchful eye upon his subjects, and also fortified the entrance to his castle with more steel. All praise him.

[geoo]

Went through the revised levels, I guess I found a couple of backroutes and a couple of intended solutions.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1: Looks intended. Non-trivial for a starter level, but nice and clean.
2: Looks like a backroute abusing intricacies in the terrain.
3: Another hackish backroute.
4: Given the leftover skills it looks like a backroute, at the same time I have the hunch that the extra skills and terrain are just a red herring and this might actually be intended?
8: I had the key idea at the end of last session already, I was just missing the idea of going under. Now it's quite clear there's no other way, and everything else fit together pretty much immediately.
9: I worked hard for this backroute, haha. I separated the lemming that gets turned around by the second bazooka shell using a jumper.
10: This might be intended; if it is, it's pretty epic. When I saw the climber climbing through the spear I thought I have to do everything again, but then he magically ended up at the exit through the other path. So the spear is not actually needed. Only minor gripe is that the stacker placements are a bit precise. I messing around with mortars to see if I could turn the umbrella into a ramp, but then gave up when I realized that even if possible, it would leave me one mortar short.

[kieranmillar]

Thanks geoo. You will probably be able to determine from the changelog below which of your solutions were unintended and which weren't.

v3 changelog:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

• Level 02 Bunker Buddy - Added Steel
• Level 03 Pier Pressure - Added Steel
• Level 04 Cliff Notes - Removed decoration
• Level 09 The Clam Army - Raised the top part of the level to be higher up and flatter
• Level 10 Lair of the Clam King - Terrain tweak, +1 Fencer, -2 Mortars

[geoo]

I think we got a bunch of backroutes and a few intended solutions again.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2: Another backroute, though I have an idea what you might have in mind for the solution.
3: This is ingenious. Took me quite a while to spot this, while I was messing around with the second thrower placement.
4: Nice one! Getting the laser blaster to prevent the climbers from turning around at the plant was not obvious and took a few tries; I guess the trick is to use the laser blaster a bit further left. For a moment I was contemplating another solution, setting up a soft catch for the crowd with a bomber from the other side of the cans, but getting the climbers back would have been hard or impossible. 9: Kind of a combination of the first and the second backroute. Could this be intended? (There's an extra image in the folder on how to separate a single lem from the crowd, even though I didn't need it in the end.)
10: Did something similar, with a pixel precise setup. Using a mortar to make a dent in the long cliff again (not pictured).

[kieranmillar]

Thanks again geoo, getting a lot closer to a full set of intended solutions now.

Not too happy with the change I've had to make to level 10, adds a tiny bit of precision I originally wanted to try and avoid, but I guess it can't be helped.

v4 changelog:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

• Level 02 Bunker Buddy - Removed a Jumper, added a Basher, minor terrain tweaks
• Level 09 The Clam Army - Minor terrain tweak
• Level 10 Lair of the Clam King - Removed a Mortar, added a Fencer, minor terrain tweak

[geoo]

I feel like I'm getting closer...2 and 9 look like they might be intended, while 10 looks like a hack.